CUBA III.

More German happiness.
In our days in Cuba we were able to enjoy few times some German items thanks to Horst and Osly.
They shared with us some can German pork prepared with spices (Sülze), we accompanied this with German bread made by Osly.



They also had us for dinner: a good piece of pork steak, German sausage, fried potato patties, tomato salad, German beer and German chocolate cake…
Thanks Guys!!!



Car Show meal- Thanks Julio!!!
Julio, our good buddy in La Habana took us to the Car Show celebrated the first weekend of each month. In the show food is offered and we were Julio’s guests for chicharrones and pork ribs. The total for this meal was 90 Cuban Pesos which is equivalent to 3.75 CUC (10 Cuban pesos for the chicharrones and 40 Cuban Pesos for each meal Brian and I had).
Good deal, a bit greasy but enjoyable. Julio said his meal was better, it consisted of a mixed of different pork cuts in a skewer for almost double of the price, but worth it.





Banana bread, thanks Brian.
Brian should have been a scientist or something similar; he is always testing and creating. I like that. In Cuba it is hard to get stuff, think of anything and imagine it hard to be found. It is the case of anything, ingredients for baking are not the exception and if you find them they are of poor quality and/or really expensive.
However, we were able to find somewhat good flour and made it into banana bread; of course in order to get the eggs we had to spend days looking until they were available. Brian made nice looking banana bread, tasty and enjoyable for about 0.70 CUC being the butter the most expensive cost (0.40 CUC), which could have been 1/3 of that price if we had bought the real Cuban butter but then you get this mushy watery butter good for nothing.
Thanks Brian for the happiness you bring into my life!!!

We shared this banana bread with few people to the point that Brian was wondering why we were visiting the neighbourhood and he was getting nothing… I think people who got a piece enjoyed it, they even asked us to open a business to sell this bread that for sure you cannot get anywhere in Cuba.
We used Nutella from Germany (compliments of Osly and Horst) on the bread and discovered that by using butter under the Nutella you get a tasty Ferrero Rocher Banana Bread.
The recipe? It was not really develop by us so you can look for a simple banana bread recipe in the Internet and you will find lots, our addition to the recipe is the Ferrero Rocher discovery.
Enjoy!!!



Los chicharos de Victoria.
Chicharos = peas.
Victoria is the lady who we stayed with in our first arrival to La Habana, very nice lady. I have been meeting her once per week to learn a different Cuban recipe each time.
I am trying to use very little meat or no meat mainly because I am not a meat lover, although I enjoy it when it is available but also because pretty soon I will be meeting a friend who is vegetarian and I would like to be able to make couple of good meals for her and her husband.
This recipe is very tasty and contains no meat, it can be done with any kind of bean but we chose peas.
The total cost was 45 Cuban Pesos, about 1.9 CUC and the pot lasted for 4 meals for two people.

Ingredients:
2 Cups of peas
2 or more Cups of water
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Onion
Garlic
“Acelgas”
Bell pepper
Carrots
Culantro
Salt
Spices
Sugar
Oil
Wine vinegar

Preparation:
Important to mention that pressure cooker is fantastic and necessary to cook beans.
1) Cook the peas in the pressure cooker for about 50-70 minutes depending on the type of peas acquired.
2) Cut all veggies in medium size squared pieces and cook them with oil adding a bit of wine vinegar and water. Add the spices you may like e.g. cumin, pepper. Remember to start by cooking the hardest vegetables first i.e. potatoes and ending with acelgas.
3) Once the peas are cooked add the seasoned vegetables, salt, culantro, a bit of sugar and oil; cook without pressure for another 30 minutes.
4) Serve on top of rice or on its own…



Huevos con vegetales.
Vicky, Victoria’s daughter does not like to cook but she creates once in a while something that seems to be practical.
Here it is one of those recipes that I enjoy very much.

Ingredients:
Boiled eggs (as many as you desire)
Onion
Garlic
Carrots
Green peas
Potatoes
Vinegar
Seasoning salt
Salt
Tomato sauce
Oil

Preparation:
1) Cut the boiled eggs in wedges.
2) Sauté all available veggies, preferably the ones I mentioned above with oil and seasoning salt.
3) Place the eggs wedges in a frying pan (after adding a bit of oil to the pan) and add the veggies on top.
4) Add a little bit of oil on top, wine vinegar, tomato sauce and salt.
5) Cook for about 10 minutes and serve on top of rice or on its own.
6) Enjoy!!!



Berenjenas.
In other words eggplants. Eggplant is not an easy veggie to cook but Victoria’s recipe is able to bring together flavour with presentation very well.
The total cost was not calculated but take in consideration that I spent about 5.875 CUC for veggies and fruits for an entire week…

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant (more if you desire, for us we can share one)
“Acelgas”
Celery
Onion
Green onions
Broccoli
Bell pepper
Green peas
Carrots
Potatoes
Oil
Wine vinegar
Seasoning salt
Butter
Cheese if available

Preparation:
1) Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the insides.
2) Cook all veggies along with the insides of the eggplant with a little bit of oil, once cook add a little bit of butter for flavour along with seasoning salt and wine vinegar.
3) Add this mix inside of each half of the eggplant. If cheese is available add it on top.
4) Place in oven until the skin of the eggplant is tender.
5) Once cooked served with some pasta (use any recipe that you may wish but it can simply be pasta with garlic and onions).
Note: I would recommend soaking the shelf of the eggplant in hot water to make it more tender before placing in the oven otherwise it comes out of the oven a bit hard even after cooking for a while which makes it impossible to eat the shelf.



Brian’s Pan Bakery.
This may remind you of Tom’s Pan Bakery in Costa Rica but nope, this is just Brian and Deya. Brian, like I said, never stops testing and he made some bread with Cuban flour!!!
He followed a recipe from the Internet for Simple Whole Wheat Bread which really calls for more white flour than whole wheat flour. In our modified version we used 2 cups of white flour and 3 cups of whole wheat flour which had been in the freezer for years but it worked.
Total cost of 1.175 for three loaves of bread. Good job Brian!!!

We ate this bread with some Leberwurst (liver paté) also compliments from Osly and Horst. Delicious.